<p>It can be so frustrating!!!
Brief intro: I'm in college now, but I noticed something that started in high school and is still happening. But first off, let me say that my high school was a well-known one in CA, and it was also heavily Asian.
So, recently, I've been noticing that a lot of my Asian peers, like me, are aiming to become doctors. That is, when they applied to colleges, they applied as premeds. The problem, though, is that a lot of my peers actually didn't want to be doctors. Their parents had asked them to become doctors, and their parents wanted them to apply to "prestigious premedical colleges" (which I learned from my peers = WUSTL or JHU) Of course, I also know people who want to be premed because they WANT to become doctors. At the same time there are many people I know who are going to apply premed because of their parents. Have any fellow CC'ers been through the same "premed pressure par parents phenomenon?" And why do you think this occurs?</p>
<p>I’d like to add also,
other “prestigious premedical colleges” also equal whatever is on the US News and Rankings top list for some of my peers/ their parents.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. I’m a Washington U STL student, and I certainly do know many Asian premeds on campus. However, there are a lot of non-Asian premeds as well (for example, the winner of this year’s Jeopardy! college championships). Currently every premed I know really wants to become a doctor; you can see the enthusiasm with which they push for health-related fundraisers or the hours they work in a medical laboratory. One thing you have right, though, is that oftentimes parents are involved. In the cases I know, my peers’ parents are doctors or work in a health field. They are role models for their children, and so I know people who are going into medicine because of parental INFLUENCE, not so much PRESSURE. I also heavily doubt the efficacy of parental pressure on their children to become doctors during college- the prestigious yet INTENSE premedical program at WashU will dwindle down the freshman premed class of 600 to about 200 by junior year. My point is that you have to have what it takes- a longstanding, inherent passion for medicine and intellect- in order to survive a premed curriculum and to successfully apply to medical school. If your parents are telling you to become a doctor, but you don’t have that internal drive, then it will be difficult to motivate yourself to study for those killer Organic Chemistry or Biochemistry exams! </p>
<p>In answer to your question about why the Asian premed phenomenon happens, I can only venture a guess. I think it’s because, like every other parent in America, Asian parents want the best for their children, and may believe medicine to be a stable life path that is financially, personally, and socially rewarding. Of course, I could be totally off the mark, so I’m curious as to what others think as well!</p>
<p>Strangely enough, recently there was a thread on CC named “Asian parents and prestige.”
One guess is that medicine is a prestigious field in Asian (and numerous other) cultures.</p>
<p>Yes absolutely. My parents want me to be a premed, but I don’t. Lol</p>
<p>Although I’m 1/2 Asian, they act like stereotypical asian parents regardless</p>
<p>No, my parents told me I should study whatever makes me happy.</p>
<p>I’m a double major in Classics and French.</p>
<p>I think some families associate becoming a doctor with a validation of being very smart and making a lot of money.</p>
<p>A girl I know (korean) was pressured by her parents to apply for premed and so was her sister. Her sister got into Brown as an English major and two years later still hasn’t told the parents she’s not a premed. The younger sister was kicked out of the house for a few days upon telling her parents she was accepted to a prestigious art school.</p>
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<p>DW & I are stereotypical Asians. We believe that if you have the right leadership and entrepreneurial skills, a liberal arts degree can get you to the top. However, lacking that, a mediocre doctor or engineer gets a better head start out of college than mediocre art major, and in many cases this is a lifelong advantage. We recognize that an average kid may hate some vocations (eg. medicine or math) and we would never pressure them into these areas. Call it prejudice but for the typical 18-year-old we don’t feel a passion for something like history or Asian Language study has any depth, and we wouldn’t have encouraged this. </p>
<p>We put all three kids in math and science oriented environments from grade school, and fortunately all three are interested in these areas, so we’re lucky we don’t have to put any “premed pressure” on any of them. It they want to explore art or music or whatever, we certainly encourage this as a hobby.</p>
<p>It seems to me that a lot of Asian Americans today have tried their best to steer away from practical majors, and instead, end up in liberal art majors and majors-that-can’t-get-you-a-job. I’d recommend any AA who tries to get into one of those exotic, humanistic, and hippy major to understand one thing and one thing only. English major or art major ain’t gona get you a job. No matter what people try to convince you with datasheet detailing the flexibility of liberal art degree, see for yourself what kind of entry level job YOU will be qualified for after graduation. You will see: non.
Instead,all those successful people with liberal arts degree have in some point in their lives turned their attention to something called a PRACTICAL CAREER TRAINING. In that sense, all liberal arts major, after college, are no different from the engineers or the accountants, with the exception that the former got one useless degree and will require extra training.</p>
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<p>False. If your child becomes a mediocre doctor, he won’t be making money out of college. He’ll go to a med school and then spend a few hundred thousand dollars more, increasing his debt (assuming he’s taking loans and mommy/daddy isn’t paying for tuition). Then see how competitive it is and how long it is to go through the whole residency process and tell me when he’s making a six-figure salary. Probably not until he’s past thirty.</p>
<p>Carin, as you point out, my analysis is indeed flawed as to income immediately after college. I still feel that, say 10 years after graduation, you have a much more solid base than the other option. Good point; thank you.</p>
<p>Many Asian parents put pressure on their children to go into medicine and engineering b/c they see it as a means of securing a future for their children (in actuality, tho, business is probably the biggest area of study for Asian students and more Asian-American students study liberal arts than pre-med and engineering).</p>
<p>To them, medicine and engineering tend to be professions where there is job/economic security, but also are areas where any prejudice/bias due to race aren’t as big of a factor(not to say there isn’t bias or prejudice in these professions).</p>
<p>This line of thnking is particularly true for immigrant families, esp. those who don’t have financial security (for well-to-do immigrant families, going to med schools is “no biggie” and for the extremely well-to-do families, medicine is a step down).</p>
<p>For Asian-American parents (meaning non-immigrant), there usually is less pressure to go to med school since thse parents tend to be more secure financially or grew up in the States and are more laid back about the prospects for their children (yeah, there are still those who want their children to go to a prestigious school and become a physician or lawyer, but that’s no different from many Jewish parents as well - or affluent WASP parents).</p>
<p>I see a lot of this nonsense with prelaw too. Asian parents wanting their asian children who suck at math to become lawyers. As if the practice of law is something you just switch into in the middle of your senior year. Med/Law/engineering, all those professions are considered the top in their respective countries in Asia, but here it’s middle class or upper middle class at most, and they don’t understand that obviously. </p>
<p>I made it clear to my parents that I do NOT want anything to do with med and the medical profession in this country is something that you get into because you TRULY WANT TO, not because it makes **** tons of money. In terms of ROI, top14 law schoo=>corporate law is so much better (and trust me, with med school level GPAs you can get into a top14 law school easy). They backed off. Happily on the law school track.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because my parents are unusually reasonable for being Asian. My friend who’s also Asian apparently gets regular threats of being cut off financially if she doesn’t slavishly follow her parents’ every order and whim, which tend to lean towards the “arbitrary and capricious” extreme.</p>
<p>I think medicine is an appealing career for immigrant parents not only because of its potential for economic security, but also because of its portability. There are quite a few immigrant parents who left their home countries with careers that didn’t translate well to a new country.</p>
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<p>Many doctors, however, are in it for the $$.</p>
<p>Look at the majority of the med students scrambling for the best residency programs in high earning specialties, as well as the fact that applications to med school tend to jump when the economy is in the dumps.</p>
<p>Yes, and their lives almost always end up in depression, divorce, alcoholism, or more than one of the above. Same thing with lawyers. A lot of law students are in it for the money but law students are terrible at math, so they go to the most expensive city in the country to practice law at firms that pay the same at every one of their US offices. Then their lives end in depression, divorce, alcoholism, or more than one of the above. Oh, not to mention a vast majority of biglaw lawyers wash out within 10 years.</p>
<p>It’s definitely a problem with both the medical and legal professions.</p>
<p>I’m a half asian female and was groomed for engineering since I was 4. Now I am in my second year of engineering, doing amazing, and very happy with the direction my life is going. =)</p>
<p>But before college, when I considered easier majors like nursing and teaching, I was threatened to be disowned.</p>
<p>just explain how socialized medicine is gonna screw doctors over</p>
<p>My parents want me to be doctor…</p>